


Someone thinks time is a straight line

by ViceCaptain



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-16
Updated: 2012-09-16
Packaged: 2017-11-14 09:46:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/513924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViceCaptain/pseuds/ViceCaptain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And there are those who are like me. Well, there were those who were like me. Because I’m the last of my kind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Someone thinks time is a straight line

**Author's Note:**

> My first work about Doctor Who. It's... It's... Well, it's particular. I just hope it makes sense and it's not ugly as shit. Warning for a little of stream of consciousness and my weird theories about space and time.

Someone thinks time is a straight line, beginning here, ending there, somewhere, slowly running from one point to the other. But I can tell you this thought is so plain and dull and boring that if it was true more than one would take their life away.

Others think time is many lines converging in one or more points, some lines quicker than others, sometimes two or more of them converge in one and keep going straight to that point. Slightly more exciting but not quite enough.

Some people think that time is a spiral that keeps turning and twisting towards its end, expanding constantly and no one could say when it’s going to stop. Initially all this going round and round like some kind of roller-coaster could be funny, but keep going like that for a long time and all you could get is seasickness. I’ll give you one century, maybe two, and you’ll run away like a hare on fire.

But then there are few which think time is made of circles, a lot of circles turning on bigger circles, some circles meet others, they fuse together, one entering another and becoming something completely different, as if they’re making love. That is what I see when I travel, beautiful circles shining and turning and meeting and transforming, sometimes they become something new, sometimes they die, that is the saddest thing in all the universe and every time I witness such an event it breaks my big, golden heart. This few that see things this way live their lives in that way: they run on their circles until they start a new circle or meet another one. They live in circles, die in circles, write in circles.

And there are those who are like me. Well, there were those who were like me. Because I’m the last of my kind. Basically being like me makes you see time like those who live on circles, but with more powers, more lives, more intelligence. And so less possibilities of seeing those beautiful circles without someone making it possible. I’m an absurd creature, so absurd that my inside is way bigger than the outside. But I’m diverting, sorry, talking is like running through all the space and time: is like starting a circle and falling in another and another and another.

Well. All this had a point… oh, yes: people living on circles. Oh, they used to be brilliant, really. The most brilliant talking creatures, because, you see, I can’t talk. If that was the case they would have been the second most brilliant talking creatures. So, they used to be because they are all gone, closed in the most maximum-security prison of all space and time. Why? The war made them go insane. A never ending, terrible war. If you could have seen just a glimpse of that battle you would have died of fear, no wonder that they became psychos and completely bonkers. Who put them in that prison? Ah, the perfect question with the most lovely pun in it. My thief locked them up and they were his people. Because he saw what they were becoming and made his decision, that he does a lot: making decisions. And giving choices, but that is another story. Now there is something you must know about my thief, he is tough, a nut to crack, one hell of a bamf and he has so many names and he is so many things: the oncoming storm, the predator, a madman in a box. But it’s not important what many call him or if for me he is a thief (my thief), if you are in need he will do anything he could to fix, because he is the Doctor. Yes, you heard me perfectly, he’s not a doctor, he is the Doctor and he lives to make things right. Sometimes he accomplishes his task, sometimes not or not in the way he had hoped for. The thing is, I love him and he loves me and if you are going to say something rude about him or being sassy and sarcastic you better get down right now, because I’m going to tell you some important things that no one, not even him, knows so you better be a good boy and listen or you can very well go f… find yourself a hole and stay there to rotten on your boring, straight, dull line of time.

Very good, you stayed, I’m glad. I assume you are a person with heart, I like people of that kind. Anyway, we were talking of my thief. He is from the people who live on circles and so clearly he lives on circles too.  
When one of his circles ends, another one starts, different from the previous but made of the same fabric, it’s a difficult concept, but try to follow me even if you’re just human. Oh, no no, don’t be offended, you are amazing creatures, it’s just that your mind tends to sleep a lot, blame her, not me.  
  
As I was saying, every circle of his life is different but the same, when a circle ends it’s sad and it’s difficult. For him and for me as well. My thief lived on ten circles for now, he is living on his 11th. He doesn’t know how many circles he will be able to live on and neither do I. Because of his travelling around fixing this and that, helping people and putting things right, many of his circles ended abruptly, completed themselves before they could reach out as much as they could. Everyone of these circles, once they close, leave something that starts a new circle and that’s what remains always the same, but all those things that are different fly away. Where they go? In a place from where they could never come out. Do the words “the most maximum-security prison of all space and time” ring any bell? Exactly, those lived lives, those ended existences go in that same place.   
  
Obviously my thief doesn’t know this particular. Every single life of his many is so rich and full of the immensity of time and space that it can’t simply transform or disappear, when a circle ends a huge mass of energy is freed, that is all my thief was before regenerating, it is someway similar to my energy. My energy can revive the dead, can travel through all the space and time, if transformed can originate a time paradox and if I was ever going to explode all the universe would blew up with me. Do you really think that an energy similar to mine (even if less powerful) could just become stardust and fly in the stars? Obviously not, or you would have been mad as a rabid monkey and put to sleep for the sake of the mankind. Glad this is not the case. So, this maximum-security prison is made of time which makes it infinite with all the space one could need.  
  
Why I’m telling you this? Because there went all the lives of my thief, all his ended circles and I don’t give a damn if you don’t believe me, I’m a time machine, there are parallel universes out there somewhere and the most skilled warriors of the universe look like potatoes in a space suit that could die for a single hit on their napes. My theory doesn’t seem so absurd now, does it?  
Now, giving that I love my thief so much, I’m always concerned for all his past lives going there for the rest of time coming, with no companions and with the possibility (even if remote) of meeting all those mental Time Lords with their ruined planet. Particularly his 10th regeneration, he was so desperate, he didn’t want to go, he almost ripped my heart when he died. It’s because of him that now I’m doing such a thing, I don’t even know if it’s allowed... Well, I made craziest things in the past, so sod what is allowed!  
  
It’s a strange place this prison, here energy takes form, becomes tangible so when a part of my energy flies in, it changes and tries to find a form. I didn’t see that coming. Well, I guess I can use the human form I once got from a killer dump planet. It’s a long story. Anyway it is good to shape in that human form once again, I missed it. Oh, god I’m becoming sentimental. I better go and find him quickly.  
  
I fly and search and hope to find him immediately because anyone of his regenerations would make me stop and follow it. It’s the first time I see that prison, it’s bleak, the sky dark and iridescent, there are things that look like stars, but maybe are just pieces and bits of energy and compressed time, the silence is overwhelming and oppressing. I fly light as a feather, shining gold as a star, in that opaque shadow I have the impression of being luminous as a sun. I hear him, my thief, except I don’t hear him, it’s more like I feel him. I feel all of his ended lives, some so far away that are almost lost, some so very near I have to quickly fly away. I twist, floating in the void of that dark sky, and try to look around, I can feel it, the 10th life of my beloved thief, its thin vibration humming gently in my head. It’s somewhere near the big red planet of his people. I fly lightly and approach some kind of asteroid, a rock more likely, an agglomerate of dust and debris and forgotten things. It makes me sad, nothing should be forgotten and my thief shouldn’t stay among that stuff no one is caring about. I hide behind what could be a rock or an uncomfortable looking armchair, he is talking with someone. Hearing his voice makes my heart ache, but I have no time to feel heartbroken because I recognise the other’s voice... the Master.  
They are just talking so I try to keep quiet and stay hidden, but I’m ready to jump out and... and do... something, I’ll think some brilliant plan while I’m there.  
  
I know what my thief feels for the Master, but the other is too bat shit crazy for me to understand and plus he turned me in a f... freaking paradox machine and he wasn’t a gentleman at all. I’m hoping that he remembers how they fought the Time Lords returning and now he is considering a truce with my thief, because he is looking at the Master with the most heartbreaking expression, surely that was the last thing he expected to find. But the other is somewhat appalled too, he is watching my thief’s face and when he talks he just asks:-how? How can you possibly be here?- the Doctor sighs and answers:-I died, Master. I died and regenerated- -but how?- the Master’s voice is somehow frantic, it hurts him that the Doctor had died:-to save a man- -save a man? A single man? You’re worth thousands of billions men, how could you... but then, it is so you, Doctor- my thief doesn’t say anything for a bit and then he speaks again:-I’m so sorry it ended like this- -you always have been so good at saying “I’m sorry”... Unfortunately you always have been very good at behaving like you didn’t care at all, too- I don’t know what he is referring to, my thief had his secrets that not even I am allowed to know. But his love for the Master isn’t a secret at all and neither the Master’s love for him, even if it has become a twisted and wicked way of loving someone.  
  
The Doctor is staring at the ground, he is feeling guilty for something, but at some point he raises his gaze and looks the other directly in the eyes:-you saved my life- the Master scoffs and says:-actually I was avenging myself... You were in the way. And even if that was so, my sacrifice would have been wasted by you dying like 20 minutes later. Really. You never had regard for what others gave you- -so you saved my life- a shy smile appears on the Doctor’s face, the Master looks away:-whatever- he mutters:-It looks like- the Doctor begins:-to work perfectly together you have to become a little like me- -and you a little like me- -that’s not true- -you took the gun- silence follows those words until the Doctor speaks again:-you’re right- -I missed the sound of those words- -I used to say them often, once- the Master sighs sadly (it would seem):-better days. I wasn’t insane and you weren’t running away from anything- -and we were happy- the Master looks in the Doctor’s eyes, he is surprised, almost shocked, by the realisation of those words:-yes. Yes, we were- he then reaches for my thief with his hand, he touches his face and then he embraces him, tightly, inspires his smell, the Doctor holds him too and closes his eyes:-I’m so tired- murmurs the Master:-yeah, you can rest, now- answers the Doctor and looks at his face, the other stares back:-I think I know why you are always running away from something and I know what that is, too- -oh, really?- the Master nods:-yes, you are the Doctor, you always fix everything, you can fix everything every damn time. The only things that can’t be fixed are those that you break. You run away from all the stuff you broke and then couldn’t fix... like... like me- the Doctor looks like he is going to cry, the Master kisses him without any warning, but he kisses back:-if you can’t fix me- he says when they break apart:-I shouldn’t call you Doctor- the Doctor smiles tenderly:-well- he says:-you know my name- that’s enough, I can’t and I must not hear further. I’ve seen enough and he is going to be alright, he always is. I turn my back to them and start flying away. I leave the prison and go back to my entire energy and my thief on his 11th circle of life that is still trying to understand why the power level lowered so abruptly, with his goggles on, seated on his swing among my cables and wires. I reignite all my circuits and hum tenderly with all my energy and he smiles happily running to the console and exclaiming:-Geronimo!-

Time is made of beautiful and shining circles and when some of them meet they transform, they become something new, it’s as if they make love together and it’s beautiful. When my thief’s circle met the Master’s circle it was exactly like that, sometimes it seemed like one was trying to beat the other, sometimes they ground together with such an intensity that they seemed on fire. Their circles meeting and crashing together gave life to an infinity of other circles, always fated to meet. That was the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen in all of my life.  
If I’m jealous? Absolutely not, because the love between me and my thief is different, I’m like the bigger circle that contains him, I helped him running away, I keep him free, but the Master keeps his circle turning.  
Now you have more questions than before, I bet. Sorry about that but I don’t feel like answering them, you keep those and maybe if there will be another travel I’ll show you something that will explain everything... Or make you even more confused. It’s not my problem.  
Now, if you will excuse me, my thief is running like a train, his circle twisting and turning, I sneaked around enough, time to put some coal in the engine and burst through the stars.  
Who is jealous now?


End file.
